


Saudade

by Samking



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angus is Barry and Lup's son, Dragons, F/M, M/M, no memory loss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2019-02-15 17:04:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13035582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samking/pseuds/Samking
Summary: Saudade (Portuguese)- the intense longing for a person or place you love but is now lost.It's been five years since the Crew of the Starblaster went out to guard their relics insuring that they could be desired but never used again. Five years since Lup has seen her husband or brother; she now lives on the outskirts of Phandalin protecting Wave Echo Cave with her young son Angus. Its a peaceful life up until the dragon comes. Hell hath no fury like a mother protecting her child.





	Saudade

The small house that Lup had deemed to be her home for the past five years wasn’t anything grand. Nothing that marked that the strongest wizard in evocation in all of Farün lived there. It had two bedrooms, one for her and one for her son, a small living room that she had decorated with memorabilia from her hundred year journey, a modest sized kitchen that Taako would have balked at, and a bathroom. It was just on the outskirts of a small mining town called Phandalin, close enough for Angus to have friends inside the town, but far enough away that Lup could easily reach the mines that hid the Phenix Fire Gauntlet to prevent others from finding it. It wasn’t a bad life, Lup worked odd jobs around the town and occasionally tutored young students in the basics of magic before they went off to study under a college or traveling wizard. She liked teaching, but she dared not take on a long-term student due to her duty to preventing others from finding the Gauntlet, that and Angus was so young. 

Her son Angus was her last connection to the rest of her family. That wasn’t quite true, she had memories, and nick-nacks that from their time on the Starblaster, she still treasured the wooden ducks that Magnus had given her over the years, and she would never thank Lucretia enough for the sketch of everyone on the beach world that the other lady had given her before they all separated. But Angus was the only living connection she had to them. He was a quizzical boy, always asking her questions, he wanted to know about her family, his father Barry, about their journey together. She knew he wanted to meet them one day, and she wanted him to be able to. He reminded her so much of Barry, they had similar personalities. 

Most days were bearable, she went around doing her usual business, taking care of Angus, watching out for travelers that were looking for powerful artifacts, keeping raiders at bay. But everyone had bad days, even Lup. Those days she could hardly pull herself out of bed, she despaired for what she had lost, the family she missed, she feared what would happen to Angus should the Hunger find them, what might happen to him if she died and became a lich. 

“Tell me how you and Dad met?” Angus asked, he sat on her lap in the living room, her arms tucked around his waist as she cuddled him. His dark curly hair covered his pointed elven ears, and a few months ago she had to take him to Neverwinter to buy him a pair of spectacles because he was unfortunate enough to inherit his father’s terrible vision. Angus loved trains now.

“Well,” Lup said gently, gazing up at the picture of the seven members of the Starblaster. “I was in training to become a member of an exploratory team. I was quite a proficient wizard back then, one of the best, and your father was too. He specialized then in Conjuration magic and I in Evocation. We didn’t cross paths much, but one day the organization- IPRE- had us go out and do a survival training for a month in the wilderness. Your father was on my team.” She chuckled as she thought of how Barry had had no survival skills, still didn’t. “He impressed me with his arcane abilities and we became friends, sort of.” She had thought he was a total nerd with no real knowledge of how the world worked outside of academia. She and Taako had teased him mercilessly for the next six months until the Starblaster crew had been picked.

“Did you save his life?” Angus asked, eyes wide behind his glasses. 

“Many times.” She said, pushing his hair back. “And he has saved mine many times too.” It had been different back then knowing that they would return at the end of the year. It was always hard to lose someone if it was close to the beginning of the year, but if it was towards the end or when they were trying to escape it wasn’t so bad. She hated that they’d all left Lucretia alone for an entire year, but the woman had grown so much stronger for it and Lup was proud of her. 

“What type of magic does Dad practice now?”  
“Necromancy.” Barry was still a very profound wizard in Conjuration as well, but theoretical Necromancy was where his heart truely lied. A bit strange, but Barry had never been a normal person. 

“Jerry says that only bad wizards practice necromancy? Is Dad bad?” Angus asked quietly, he looked down into his lap. Lup wrapped her arms tighter around her son, and pulled him in closer to her, wishing that Taako and Barry were there as well to make a pile of cuddles. “I don’t want Dad to be bad. Is that why he left us?”

“Angus,” Lup said with a gentle-seriousness that she had learned by being a mother. “Your father is not a bad guy. Your father is one of the best men I have ever been privileged enough to meet. He left us because he had to, because there are dangerous artifacts out in the world and he has to make sure that no one can use them. Just like I do.” Angus nodded, he wiped away unshed tears, and Lup made sure that she pressed kisses into every part of his face. Angus faced so much animosity because he was of two races, Lup didn’t understand it, there had never been this kind of hatred towards any half races on her homeworld. Nor did they refer to person of two races as half of anything. Angus was special and he was her little boy, and she would tear down this whole world to protect him if she had to. 

“Mommy, stop that.” Angus said with laughing protests. 

“I’m not Mommy.” Lup said playfully, turning Angus so that he was now laying across her lap as she pretended to eat his belly. “I’m a monster and I gobble up little boys. Yummmgrmm.” She blew a raspberry on him, enjoying the sound of his laughter.   
“No, no,” Angus shrieked while laughing. “Don’t eat me, Mommy-monster.”  

They played like that for a few minutes until Angus started hiccuping from laughing so hard and Lup decided to give the kid a break. Angus curled up against her, taking deep breaths to stop the hiccups just as she had taught him. He was a smart boy, so very smart, as if she could have expected anything different from him, both of his parents were the elite of the elite wizards on her homeworld. She would likely have to start teaching him basic cantrips soon or his magic would start manifesting itself in different ways. “I miss him.” Angus whispered into her chest.

“Me too, baby, me too.” She casted Program Illusion, and a memory of Barry appeared in the living room in front of them looking over a bassinet.

“He’s beautiful.” Illusion-Barry said in awe, one of his hands reaching down into bassinet. “We did good, Lup. We did so good.” Barry leaned down to press a kiss onto the baby Angus in the bassinet. “I love you.”

“Don’t smother him.” The illusion-memory projected Lup’s voice. “I didn’t carry him for nine months so you could smother him in kisses when he was six hours old.” The real Angus laughed at this, watching the illusion play out as Barry picked up the baby and held him.

“Angus McDonald,” Illusion-Barry whispered, “the world outside might be horrible right now, and it might be scary. But we’re going to make it all better. And we’re going to make sure you stay safe and protected. All of us, your mom and me, your Uncle Taako and Uncle Magnus, your Aunt Lucretia, and your grandfather's Captin’port and Merle. We’re all going to protect you and love you, because you are so special. And you’re going to be a really great Necromancer one day.”

“Evocation, love. He’ll specialize in evocation.” Lup’s voice came again. Real Lup smiled as she thought about the bickering of the other crew members on what type of magic Angus would specialize in one day. There was a running bet between Magnus, Lucretia, and Merle. 

“Transmutation!” an Illusionary-Taako called from out of sight.

Then the illusion disappeared, it's five minutes up and Lup smiled down at Angus. “He loved you, he still does.”

“Where is he?” Angus asked. 

“I don’t know pumpkin.” Lup said honestly. Part of the pact they had made when they decided to hide the Grand Relics and protect them was to not know where the others were hidden. That way if someone with intentions to gather all seven were to discover even one of them, they couldn’t tell where the others were. Lup suspected where some of her family but she had no concrete proof of where any of them were. It was safer that way.

Lup glanced over at the clock, she had been enjoying the quiet night with Angus but it was getting time for him to go to bed. Part of this whole Mom thing still felt weird and domestic to her after never having this sort of thing as a child. She couldn’t remember really ever having a bed time, none of her relatives cared about her or Taako enough to ever set one. By the time they had started the caravans, they would sleep on that schedule, knowing that they had to be up early the next morning in order to have breakfast ready. Luckily elves didn’t have to sleep much.

It hadn’t been an easy life, they were always afraid of being robbed, or being left behind if the caravan master didn’t feel as if they could keep up. Or of being seperated, especially as Lup had gotten older and began to grow into her body more. Magic became essential to keep wandering hands off of her, and Taako had made sure never to stray too far and to stay within earshot no matter what. 

But Angus wouldn’t have that, he wouldn’t have to grow up in constant fear like she had. He would grow up knowing he was loved, knowing that he was wanted and was never considered a burden. He was her greatest accomplishment. Giving him a stable life was something she was very proud of as it could have been quite easy to travel around with the Phenix Fire Gauntlet to hide as she suspected Taako was doing with his relic. Instead she had found a small town to raise him that had an abandoned mine with a vault very few could get into. It would have been perfect had Barry been able to join them. 

“Do you think he misses us?” A very sleepy quiet voice asked. Lup looked down to see that Angus was curled up still in her lap, one of his fist holding onto the edge of her shirt, his eyes nearly closed.  
“Yes. I think he misses us very, very much.” She whispered kissing his temple watching him fall asleep in her lap. “One day you’ll get to meet him.” Then very carefully she picked Angus up, cradling him in her arms as she carried him to her bedroom, deciding that it was a good night for an Angus sleep over. 

When she had departed for Phandolin five years ago, Angus had been three months old and still slept in a bassinet beside her bed. But it was the first time Lup had slept alone in a long time. Growing up, she and Taako had always shared a bed for protection and for warmth. While training for IPRE, they often had snuck into each other’s rooms when they had bad days or just wanted to see one another. It was something they had carried on the Starblaster. In the years where one of them didn’t make it pretty early on, one of the other members of the crew stepped in, usually Magnus, but Lucretia and Barry at times as well. And then she and Barry had begun to date and share a bed and she was used to having a warm body to press up against. Taako even came in sometimes to cuddle with them when he needed comfort. And then she suddenly had had nobody. There was no warm body beside hers, no arms, no good mornings. 

She was used to it now, though Angus sometimes would crawl into bed when he’d had a nightmare or just wanted his mother for whatever reason. And then sometimes they had Angus sleepover nights where Angus just slept in her bed for no real reason other than to spend time with her like now. 

Then she carefully climbed into the other side of the bed so as not to disturb him and gently ran her fingers through his curly hair. Poor kid had inherited that from her. “If you guys could see him now.” She whispered, the Starblaster crew would be so proud of him. 

 

Lup hated working nights at the Lonely Dwarf, first the name of the establishment was just atrocious, what kind of name was the Lonely Dwarf- an offensive one- she assumed it had gotten its name during the mining days at Wave Echo Cave, but since the Rockseeker Clan had all but been wiped out there were no lonely dwarves coming in from the mines. Second, most of the patrons were locals and they didn’t seem to very much care about personal space and boundaries, especially not with the young golden haired elf woman who had a proclivity towards burning people if they got too close to her outside of the tavern. Here though she had to play nice with the patrons. Locals didn’t get too handsy, didn’t want to risk someone telling their wives or something, but travelers who were spending a night didn’t have such prohibitions, and tonight there were a ton of travelers. It seemed there was some big festival going on up the road in Neverwinter that people in Goldcliff seemed to be going to. Unfortunately the group of travelers that were patroning the tavern tonight weren’t the sort who wanted to take the train to Neverwinter, they were a rougher sort who hunted down treasure and the likes. She would have to keep an eye on Wave Echo Cave for the next week or so to make sure no one got any stories of powerful relics in their head and decided to check out the old abandoned mine. This group was also not the types to listen to the world no either. 

“I swear to Istus…” she muttered as another human warrior’s hand brushed her lower back. She would fireball the next person who so much as gazed at her butt, job be damned.

“Lup, why don’t you take a five minute break.” Joy said, the buxumous strawberry-blond woman had just as many admirers as Lup did, but she enjoyed the attention she received. Once upon a time Lup had as well, she had used her looks to con drunk men and hustle people at pool, but she was married now, married with a kid. Leering gazes no longer interested her and certainly not lingering touches. Joy’s younger sister Noelle was looking after Angus tonight, Noelle was a sweet young woman, very caring and Angus loved her, and Lup trusted her to look after her son.

Lup nodded, going back behind the counter towards the kitchen so that she could blow off some steam. In a back alleyway behind the kitchen she blew out smoke from her mouth as her magic cooled off. It wasn’t normal for her to lose control like this, she had never feared Wild Magic, not even while she had been teaching herself and Taako magic. But since coming to Faerun, since separating from her family she had experienced a lack of control with it a few times. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. “Lup.” Joy said from the kitchen doorway. “Lup, Noelle is on the stone of farspeech.” Joy held a small stone with a rune inscribed on it.  
“Noelle, this is Lup.” Lup said taking the stone, Joy lingered in the doorway watching.

“Mommy,” Angus’s voice came from the stone. “One of the candles on the table lit itself.” Lup felt her heart drop. One of the traps she had set in Wave Echo Cave had just gone off. She had to go, she had to make sure whoever it was couldn’t get into the vault.

“Ango, I’m heading home right now.” Lup said, Joy gave her a funny look.   
“Okay.” Angus replied.

“Lup, you can’t-” Joy protested. “Lila won’t let you.” Lila was the owner of the Lonely Dwarf and Lup’s employer, she was not the most understanding of women. Stern mostly and uncompromising, Lup was pretty sure she always scheduled Lup for nights when the tavern would be the busiest just because she wanted to.

“Fuck Lila.” Lup said. “I have something that is more important than this job to do.” Istus give her strength to deal with nieve townsfolk and whatever idiot bumbled their way into Wave Echo Cave. “You can tell Lila I said that too.” Then Lup stalked out to the entrance of the alley and left. 

She was about halfway back to the house when she heard a deafening roar from the direction of Wave Echo Cave. She knew that sound, she had heard it once before on world sixty-eight, a world that had been inhabited solely by- a large dark shape took form in the sky on the horizon from the direction of Wave Echo Cave- dragons. “Fuck.” Lup cursed as she began to run back to the house. She wished she had a stone of farspeech on her to warn Noelle and Angus of what was coming. A dragon, a fucking dragon had come looking for the relic. She hadn’t quite expected that, though it would seem that the dragon had not been able to access the vault either or else he would not be screaming in an angry rampage, that meant he would start looking for the Guardian of the Relic. Her.

“Lup, oh thank goodness.” Noelle said as Lup reached the house, the dragon on the horizon was bigger and was headed straight for Phandolin. “Is that a dragon?”

“Yes.” Lup said as Angus ran into her arms. “I need you to take Angus far away from here, do you understand me?” Noelle nodded. “Go to Neverwinter and look for the Miller family. Tell them that Lup from the Starblaster sent you. They will take him to his father.”

“No, Mommy, I want to stay here with you.” Angus protested as Noelle grabbed him. 

“I’ll hold off the dragon.” Lup said. “Angus, please, go with Noelle. I love you and I will join you as soon as I can. Okay?” She kissed his forehead.

“And then we’ll go to Dad?” Angus asked. Lup nodded. Then Noelle with one final pull wrested Angus away from Lup.

“I’ll protect him.” Noelle promised as the dragon shrieked again. Then she and Angus ran towards Phandolin and the road to Neverwinter. Lup took a deep breath, Angus would be safe and she would fight the dragon off and hope to all hell that Phandolin would not be collateral damage. When they had made their plan to prevent others from getting their hands on the relic and prevent any more collateral damage, Lup hadn’t exactly been expecting a dragon to show up looking for her relic.

Lup grabbed her Umbrastaff and waited for the dragon to get closer. This was not her first time battling a dragon, but this was her first time doing so alone. A dark voice in the back of her mind reminded her that the last time she had battled a dragon for the light of creation it had not gone so well. Taako had died during their encounter, and unfortunately this had been early on in their year on this world, and so had Magnus; Merle had been dead already from his communication with John the Hunger; and Lucretia had lost an arm during the fight. It had been a hard year. She was stronger now, she’d had thirty-seven more years to gain more power. And she was a lich now so that was a plus as well.

When the dragon got close enough she cast flame strike at the dragon, gaining the creature’s attention, she watched as it changed course from Phandolin to her. “Who are you?” the dragon raged.

“I am the creator of the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet!” Lup shouted. “I am the one who bars your access.” She watched as the dragon landed about a hundred yards away from her in a clearing.

“You are the Guardian of the Relic?” The dragon said sounding amused. “I have defeated two other guardians and stolen their relics. I will do the same to you.” He had two of the relics already, but whose? Were her family members still alive?

“Where are the Guardians now?” she asked almost afraid to hear the answer. If they were dead did she hope that the Hunger did come so that they could escape to another realm? And what about Angus? She wouldn’t leave him here to be consumed by the Hunger, but could he come with them on the Starblaster?

“They are alive, they are my prisoners, I would not destroy something so precious as these powerful arcanist.” The dragon said smugly. “I won’t kill you either if you give me the relic.”

Lup shook her head. “I can’t get you into that vault.” She said. “You need the blood of a particular family that is dead.” The Rockseeker family had been wiped out during the orc raids that had followed after the Relic Wars. Most orcs had settled into the human civilizations like elves, dwarves, gnomes and halflings had but there were some who still lived a more nomadic lifestyles of raiding hordes and the like.

The dragon let out a roar of hanger. “If you will not get me into that vault, I will take the thing you love most.” The dragon outstretched its wings once more to take to the sky. Lup pointed her Umbrastaff at it and cast Prismatic Bow. A huge bow appeared in her hand and a quiver of different color arrows appeared at her side. She pulled out the orange arrow and shot it at the dragon. Watching as an orange streak of light shot through the air at it. The dragon roared as she pierced one of its wings. Lup knocked the next arrow, a blue one, fire might have been her specialty but she was certainly capable at other evocation domains, even if ice was not much her style. She fired the blue arrow, watching as the blue streak of light soared past the dragon’s face and hitting the other wing. Once more a roar rang out into the night, but now the dragon was temporarily blinded which would hopefully give Lup the time she needed to get Angus out of the dragon’s path.

She took off after Noelle and Angus, traveling much faster than they could being an adult elf and not having her son’s short legs. She could hear the dragon roaring behind her as she traveled. She kept the prism bow in one hand and her Umbrastaff in the other as she ran. “Mommy!” Angus called seeing her with his night vision. 

She could see Noelle stop ahead of her and turn. “Lup! The dragon!” Lup turned around to find the dragon right behind her. She dropped the Umbrastaff and knocked another color arrow, this time violet as she took aim. The violet light soared through the sky, hitting the underbelly of the dragon who roared as he passed over them and landed in front of Noelle and Angus blocking them from the path to Phandalin.

“I will take him if you do not grant me access to the Gauntlet.” The dragon threatened.

“Get down.” Lup said, pushing both Noelle and Angus down behind her as she dispelled the Prismatic bow and began an even bigger spell with the Umbrastaff. It wouldn’t be as damaging on the dragon as it would be on a normal creature but it would hopefully be powerful enough. She casted Meteor Swarm watching as four huge burning spheres erupted from her staff. She sent one at the dragon watching as it hit, but barely seemed to have any effect, she sent the next one and the next one. Each one doing less damage than Lup would hope a level nine spell would do. 

“This is futile, Guardian of the Relic. Give me the gauntlet.” The dragon said. He reared up on his powerful back legs as he took to the sky once more. Lup sent up her last fire ball towards his underbelly watching with some delight as the dragon gave a howl of protest as she finally did some damage against it.

“That was amazing.” Noelle said breathlessly. “I didn’t know you were so powerful.” Lup nodded absentmindedly as she watched the dragon fly off. “Is he gone?”

“I think so.” Lup said grabbing onto Angus. They would have to leave Phandalin with the dragon after them. She needed find out which relics the dragon had obtained and who he had taken. She needed to get Angus somewhere safe, Lucretia would be able to protect him while she hunted down the dragon. It was time to find her family again. “Noelle, I think you should go home. Go home and avoid Phandalin for a few days in case the dragon comes back.”

“But Lup-” Noelle protested.

“Go. I need to know you’re safe too. Okay?” Lup staggered slightly, she had burned a lot of spell slots fighting the dragon, though luckily she hadn’t sustained any damage.

Then there was the roar of the dragon once more. Lup looked up to see him nose diving towards the three of them. She pushed Noelle out of the way and watched in horror as the dragon’s claws swooped down and grabbed a hold of Angus. “Angus!” She shouted. She pointed the Umbrastaff at the dragon once more as she summoned the largest fireball she could channel at the moment.

“Mommy!” Angus shouted from the dragon’s claws.  
  
“Are you willing to take the chance you’ll hit him instead?” The dragon asked her with a smug tone. Lup fell to her knees. “Bring me the gauntlet, I’ll be in the Spine and you can have your son back.”

“Angus!” Lup cried out as the dragon flew into the dark night sky taking her son with her.

**Author's Note:**

> Alright so I really love the fics where Angus is Lup and Barry's son, and I also really liked the idea of what if instead of forgetting about the relics they all decided to go out into the world and be the protectors of the relics or something. This is my brain child, plus I really don't want to study for finals. Also I really love dragons and I'm sorry I made this one evil. Let me know what you think, also you can find me on Tumblr at rebelsofthegalaxy (I have no idea how to link it).


End file.
